Damn Arachnids
by DevlinV1
Summary: [FIN:2004:Mentioned Hardycest & Slash] Matthew has discovered Jeffrey & Christopher's torrid affair & taken it upon himself to slay them! A spider infested cave seems to have doomed the fate of this love triangle... [It's not what you think! :wink:]


**Damn Arachnids**

**By Archangel**

"Keep running! He's gaining!"

"I can't see where I'm going!"

"Keep your hands out in front of you! Just run!"

Behind them they could hear his roaring anger and the clanging of his sword on the stone walls of the cave. Jeffrey and Christopher ran as fast as their legs could carry them. Stumbling along through the cave was going to prove fruitless in the end for they would only get lost in the depths of the earth, but that fate seemed much more inviting than to be at the end of Matthew's blade.

"Come back here! I'll kill you! One for stealing my brother, and the other for _being _my brother!"

Jeffrey glanced over his shoulder, wondering how in the world he could possibly be punished for something that was true by his birth. It wasn't his choosing to be Matthew's younger brother. It also wasn't his choosing that the two of them had fallen so deeply in love. He supposed, however, as he looked forward into the darkness again, that it was his fault that he had fallen in love with Christopher instead. Christopher wasn't his blood. Christopher was someone that he could actually be with. Not if Matthew could help it, though.

"Aaa!" Jeffrey yelped as something sticky and wispy brushed over his face and got caught in his hair. "What in the world is this?"

"What is it, Jeffrey!" Christopher called from right behind him.

"Something sticky! It's all over the walls!"

"Sticky?" Christopher muttered to himself. "Jeffrey! Stop!"

"Are you crazy! With Matthew right be--"

Jeffrey's sentence was cut off by his own panicked scream. Without any light, he hadn't been able to see the sharp drop in front of him. He plummeted through the black, his fear echoing off the walls around him. He closed his eyes and waited for the sudden stop, but it didn't come as he had expected. He was suddenly cradled by what felt to be taut ropes, bouncing on them slightly before coming to rest. He panted as the adrenaline still pumped through him.

"Jeffrey! Jeffrey!" Christopher's frightened voice called down to him.

"I'm here! I landed on something soft!" He looked around himself, trying to figure out where he was. "What am I lying on?"

"Jeffrey!" Matthew's voice suddenly called as well. "Are you alright?"

"Yes!" He answered, half wondering what had become of Christopher if Matthew had reached him. "I think..."

"How far down are you!"

"I don't know! During my fall I lost sense of myself!"

"We can go down for him. If we're careful," Christopher's voice said softer, obviously speaking only to Matthew.

"Shut up. I still fully intend to kill you, you heart stealing bastard. Unfortunately I might need you in order to help get to Jeffrey."

"Oh. A truce of convenience," came the arrogant remark.

"Shut up I say."

"Why don't you both shut up and help me!" Jeffrey yelled back at them.

"Jeffrey, are you hurt at all?" Christopher asked.

"No. No, I'm fine."

"Then try to climb back up to us. We'll come down halfway in order to help you."

"Alright I'll..." he trailed off as he tried to sit up. "Wait. I'm stuck!" Jeffrey pulled with all his might, but he was stuck fast to the ropes underneath him. "These ropes! They're sticky! So much so that I can't move!"

"Shit!" Christopher exclaimed.

"What!" Matthew demanded. "What are you concerned for!"

"Look around you! Feel around you! There are spider webs everywhere!"

Jeffrey froze at hearing that. Spider webs? And he was lying across sticky ropes? He looked around himself quickly, looking and listening for any signs of spiders anywhere. The panic was rising in his throat in the form of a thick lump that he couldn't swallow down.

"Help me! Get me out of here!" he yelled up at his so-called saviors.

"We have to go down to him. You can cut him loose with your sword whilst I grab hold of him to pull him up."

"Let's go."

Jeffrey listened and could faintly hear the sounds of boots against rock, the scraping sound obviously showing that they were on their way to save him. He tried to focus on that thought and not on the fact that he was trapped in a giant spider web. However, his mind wandered on that.

_Giant spider web. Giant spider._

He took a shaky breath and looked around himself again. His eyes were adjusting to the dim light in this area of the cave, but too slowly for his liking. He could barely make out the shimmer of Matthew's sword dangling from his hip as well as the white of Christopher's shirt. They were far from him, though, and their progress was slow going. Jeffrey tried once again to pull himself from the webbing, but soon found that the more he moved the more stuck he became.

He froze as a new sound reached his ears. It sounded distinctly like hissing. Loud hissing. He slowly turned his head in the direction of the noise and suddenly wished that his vision hadn't adjusted to the darkness at all. He screamed louder than he ever had in his life, feeling his heart would burst straight from his chest from terror. Overhead he faintly heard Christopher and Matthew yelling for him.

"Spider! Giant spider!" Was all he could manage at first as he began to struggle with more earnest. "Oh God! Help me! Matthew, help me!"

Then the spider was hovering over him, his fear doubling to a point where he could scream no more. He stared, wide eyed, sweat breaking out all over his body in an icy cold sheet. Multiple eyes stared back at him and drooling jaws opened to reveal monstrous fangs. The beast came even closer, resting back on its hind legs so to reach for Jeffrey with the front four. It gathered him up, tearing small pieces of its web in the process. Jeffrey whimpered with paralyzing terror, his eyes locked on the huge teeth just above his head.

"Jeffrey! Jeffrey, answer me!"

At the sound of Matthew's voice the spider looked up. Jeffrey did as well and saw that the other men were much closer now and moving at a dangerous speed. He screamed again, trying in vain to escape from the spider's grasp. It turned its attention back to him at his movement and quickly began to bond him even further in webbing, wrapping him tightly so that he couldn't make a move. He screamed with all his strength, desperate to let them know he was alive, desperate for them to hurry to save him. Then the webbing came across his face, covering his mouth and nose. He was silenced and suffocated. He tried to move, fighting to find a way out, struggling not to breathe in lest he inhale the sticky web right into his lungs. Outside of the webbing he could faintly hear the others fighting for him.

"Jeffrey! Don't die! I'll sa--"

Christopher's voice was cut short and a second later a loud thump was heard.

"Christopher!" Matthew cried out. "I shall kill you, you monstrous arachnid! I will not let you kill my brother!"

Jeffrey felt himself growing weak, his chest on fire with pain from lack of air. His body convulsed and tried to pull in any form of breath, but even the webbing couldn't be sucked in as he was bound so tightly. He tried to make a sound, any sort of grunt or shrill shriek in his throat, but he had no strength left to do even that. His head was growing fuzzy and light.

"Jeffrey! Jeffrey, don't die! Please, don't--"

There was a sickening wet sound and Matthew grunted weakly. Something like the sound of choking, or perhaps gurgling, was all Jeffrey heard. Beneath him he felt the web bouncing with great movement coming towards him. The spider was returning. Matthew was surely dead. Jeffrey's body jerked one final time then the pounding in his head ceased. It was the beat of his heart he had been hearing. And once it stopped everything relaxed and went still. Jeffrey felt as if he was falling once again.

He forced himself up with a terrified scream, followed by gasps for air. The darkness around him was suddenly illuminated and blinded him. He covered his face and scrambled backwards from the source. He knew he had to escape somehow. He was still alive! Now he had to...

"Jeff! Jeff, calm down!"

He stopped and moved his hand slightly, squinting into the light. "Matthew?"

"Yeah. It's me. It's okay, Jeffro. You're awake," he said soothingly.

"Awake?"

He lowered his hand and looked around slowly. He was in a room with two beds, a table and chair, and a television on a dresser. It was unfamiliar, yet familiar all at once. He looked up at Matthew in surprise, seeing him shirtless and his hair wildly messy around his face. He was wearing... boxer shorts with lightning bolts on them. And they were in a hotel room.

"You're awake," he said in the softest voice. "It was just a dream."

"A dream?" He blinked at him for a moment and then glanced around again briefly before looking back. "Matty?"

Matt's brows drew together in great concern as he crawled onto the bed and took Jeff into his arms, rocking him gently. "It's okay. It's me. Your brother. It was all just a nightmare, Jeffro. You're safe and awake now. It's okay."

"Oh my God, Matty. It was horrible," he said as he collapsed against his chest.

"What this time?"

"You were chasing me and Chris through a cave, swinging your sword and screaming you were going to kill us both because we betrayed you."

"What'd you do?"

"Well..." Jeff grimaced slightly. "In the dream you and I were lovers."

Matt's eyes widened in surprise and confusion. "Ohhh-kaaayyy..."

"But I fell for Chris instead and we got together behind your back."

"You cheated on me?" he asked with an amused smirk.

"Yeah. Well you were going to kill us for it. So we were running through this cave and it was really dark and I started running into spiderwebs. Then Chris yelled for me to stop, but I didn't because I was scared of you. So I fell into this big hole. I landed on something that I thought was like ropes strung across it or something, but when I tried to move I was stuck! It was a web! A huge web!"

"And it was owned by..."

"A huge spider!" they said in unison.

"Of course," Matt said with a grin.

"It wasn't funny!" he exclaimed and lightly beat on his chest with his fists for a second. "You and Chris decided to help me together and had to climb down to get me, but before you got there the spider showed up. It came over to me and started to pull me loose from the web, but when it noticed the two of you it started to wrap me up in it. It wrapped me so tight I couldn't move and I was screaming like mad until it wrapped my head and face. Then I couldn't breathe! I could hear you and Chris fighting, but then there was a big thump and you screamed for Chris. You yelled that you would save me, but then I heard something really wet and gross and then a choking and gagging sound. I felt the spider coming back to me, but I was suffocating and everything was fading away. I felt like I was falling. I think... I think I died..."

"No, no, no, no..." Matt interrupted and squeezed him. "You woke up. Sounds like everyone else died, though."

"I think so..." he said softly.

"Hey, it was just a dream, Jeffro." He chuckled slightly. "And you _did _eat a whole large pizza with pepperoni and pineapple all by yourself right before falling asleep. Plus a whole bag of Sweet Tarts. And you drank a two liter of Dr. Pepper. And don't forget the cheesy bread."

"Oh... Yeah, I did." He sat up and rubbed his belly. "No wonder I'm all bloated."

"You have indigestion. Go into the bathroom and get yourself some antacid or something."

Jeff nodded and got up, stumbling slightly as he walked into the room. He flicked on the light and gasped at what he saw. On the mirror over the sink was a brown furry spider a little larger than a quarter including his legs. A Wolf Spider. Jeff didn't move at first, but then thought about his dream. He narrowed his eyes, growling low in his throat. He reached out and slammed his palm into the mirror, crushing the spider underneath.

"Kill my lovers will you? Take that you furry, disgusting, creepy piece of shit."

Jeff snarled and quickly moved to wash his hand, hearing laughter just outside the door. He sighed. Matt must've gotten a kick out of watching him slay the monster single handedly.

"See? You didn't need me or Chris after all!"

"Shut up or I'll squish you next!"

**The End**

_A/N: Okay, I admit. It was partially inspired by the giant spider in LotR._

_Legalities: Chris Jericho is copyright to himself. Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, and any other mentioned characters are property of World Wrestling Entertainment. I claim no knowledge of each of the characters sexual preferences or lives. This is a story of fiction, none of these events are real. I received absolutely no profit from this story._


End file.
